Clause structures

they met outside

Clauses are independent units of meaning. They are,
grammatically, phrases which contain at least one verb phrase.
Compare, for example the items here. The bits on the right are clauses; those
on the left are phrases:

Phrases

Clauses

in the huge garden

he arrived

very, very slowly

playing the piano

an old dog

to help with the cooking

the woman on the corner

she obviously left early

the engineer's wife

going slowly under the bridge

All the chunks on the right here contain a verb of some sort but
none on the left does.
However, if you have spotted that only he arrived and
she left early can stand alone as pieces of intelligible
language, you have noticed something rather important. A
definition of a clause used in many traditional grammars is that it
is a unit containing a subject and its predicate.

The subject is the thing or person that does whatever the
verb suggests.

The predicate can be many things.

In the example above, they met outside, it is the adverb:
outside

It can be a prepositional phrase: They met
outside the pub

It can be a noun phrase (as an object): They met
me

It can be another clause: They met
because they needed to talk

Finite and Non-finite clauses

In this analysis, we will be using the term 'clause' for any group of
words containing a verb phrase but will distinguish between finite
and non-finite clauses.

A finite verb, as in the sentences above, is a form that is
marked in some way for tense (the past of meet, in this
case) or for person (such as adding -s to the verb to
make He meets). In English, many verbs which are
finite (i.e., carrying tense and person) do not have an
obvious marker in the morphology. They are still finite
forms because having no obvious mark is called a zero marker.
All of these are clauses with finite verbs (i.e., they are
finite clauses):

He arrived at 6 (marked for tense with -d
on the verb)

We start at 7 (no marking for tense or person but zero
marked and finite)

We are starting at 8 (marked for tense [current
arrangement to talk about the future] and person [plural
are])

A non-finite verb form is not marked for tense or person,
even by zero, and
we do not, by looking at it, know when it happens or who does
it. All these are non-finite clauses:

opening the letter ...

... to see clearly

having seen it ...

to speak honestly ...

Matrix and Subordinate clauses

In geology, a matrix is a fine-grained rock in which other
minerals are embedded and the definition will hold quite well for
our purposes.
Consider these two sentences:

She saw the dog wanted food

She saw the dog wanted
to eat something

In sentence 1., we have two clauses:

The Matrix clause: She saw the dog
wanted foodThe Subordinate clause embedded in the matrix:the dog wanted foodBoth of these clauses are finite because the verb is marked
for tense (and in many languages would also be marked for aspect
and person).

In sentence 2., we have three clauses:

The Matrix clause: She saw the dog
wanted to eat somethingSubordinate clause A: the dog
wanted to eat somethingSubordinate clause B: to eat somethingBoth the Matrix clause and Subordinate clause A are finite
clauses with the verb marked for tense (saw
and wanted respectively).
Subordinate clause A is embedded in the Matrix clause.
Subordinate clause B is embedded in Subordinate clause A and is
non-finite (the verb, to eat, is unmarked for person or
tense).
Subordinate clause A, therefore, is the Matrix clause for
Subordinate B.

This means, if you are following, that the terms Matrix and
Subordinate are relative. A subordinate
clause can be the matrix clause for its own subordinate clause.
In many cases (as in these examples) the Matrix clause and the
sentence are the same. That needn't be the case because we can
have, e.g.,
Mary came home when she finished work and John left as soon as
he saw her.In which we have two Matrix clauses both with an embedded
Subordinate clause (of time) but only one sentence.

If you prefer a graphical representation:

or

There are two important points:

All matrix clauses must be
finite clauses

Subordinate clauses can be finite
or non-finite

Non-finite clauses contain one of the following verb forms:

the bare infinitive: She let me
leave early

a to-infinitive: I want to
leave early

a past participle form:
Left on the table were the remains of dinner

an -ing form:
Leaving early was a real bonus.

Finite verb forms will always be marked for tense (even if as in,
e.g., They come late, the marking for tense is the
absence of a change to the verb or an ending) and often
for person, too, as in e.g., He comes late.

There will be more about types of subordinate clauses later in
the course.

Verbless clauses

This sounds like a contradiction in terms because we have just
defined a clause as a unit containing a verb phrase. At times,
however, we can leave out the verb because it will be easily
understood. We also, incidentally, often have to leave out the
verb's subject as well.
Here are some examples:

Leaving out the finite verb phrase

If possible, come before six (= If it is
possible, come before six)Whether now or later, we'll get it done (= Whether
we do it now or later, we'll get it done)
These clauses often contain conjunctions such as whether,
whenever, where etc.

Leaving out a non-finite verb phrase

Too tired to cook, I went straight to bed (=
Being too tired to cook, I went straight to bed)There are lots of interesting jobs in the sector, many
highly paid (= There are lots of interesting jobs in
the sector, many being highly paid)

Verbless clauses are sometimes called defective
clauses or even simply small clauses.

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